Dr. Helen Lee of the Public Policy Institute of
California found that while poor communities had an
abundance of convenience stores, fast-food restaurants, and
corner stores that sell cheap, high-fat foods, they also had
"nearly twice as many supermarkets and large-scale grocers
per square mile" as wealthier neighborhoods, Kolata writes.

In another
study of more than 13,000 California people aged 5 to 17
years, researchers found no relationship between food environment
(measured by the density and distance of fast-food restaurants,
convenience stores, grocery stores and large supermarkets) and
what kids ate.

It is always easy to advocate for more grocery
stores,” Kelly D. Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy
and Obesity
told Kolata. “But if you are looking for
what you hope will change obesity, healthy food access is
probably just wishful thinking.”